14 comments:

Bill Maher is generally a libertarian, with him taking liberal positions on a lot of issues, but also being conservative on war issues in particular.

And part of what makes Jon Stewart so effective as a comic is that though he clearly had a preferred horse in last year's Presidential race, he didn't hesitate to ridicule hypocrisy and stupidity regardless of what side it came from. Some of his funniest stuff was making fun of cliched "Democratic" stuff such as the "son of a goat ball licker" speech.

By any fair measuring stick, Maher is a liberal. He's pro gun-control, pro-choice, pro-drug legalization, pro-pornography, pro gay marriage, pro-campaign finance reform, anti-fossil fuels, anti big business, etc. He's done benefits for the Dems in general and Hillary in particular. He's pro-military, but anti-Bush and anti-Iraq War. His guest panels are routinely stacked with liberals, leaving the sole conservative to defend himself/herself against the other guests, the host, and the rabid pro-Maher audience. In other words, it's never a fair fight. Oh, and did I mention the smugness?

I missed out on 2002-2003 in the real world (darn war) and when I got back, Miller was out, and Maher was in. I don't know when that switch happened, but I thought it was odd. then I'm watching Miller on CNBC (worst audience ever) and he's talking about how he turned to the dark side, and was a Bush supporter.

all was revealed.

at least on HBO, Maher can say all the same things he did before without getting lily-white Disney in trouble.

From where I live, I'd have to say, the current brand of "Conservatism" in the US is far more smug than liberalism, at least from where I live in France as an English speaker who strives to keep track of the trends in both the US and France, that is...

I will suggest that any time you get a bunch of similar people together where they are not that likely to run into nonsimilar people, you are going to get smugness.

So, no surprise, in the People's Republic of Madison, it is the liberals who are smug. But in parts of the Bible Belt, it is the conservatives. And, if you spend any time in Utah, you immediately notice how smug many of the Mormons there are - but the further away they get from there, the less smug they get. (Nothing against Mormons, of course).